In case you hadn’t noticed, today is the Queen’s 90th birthday. With that in mind, we take a look at how prices of the Englishman’s proverbial castle have fared during her lifetime.

Ham & High: Comparing the prices of goods in a typical shopping basket today vs 90 years ago shows how disproportionate the 42,000% rise in house prices isComparing the prices of goods in a typical shopping basket today vs 90 years ago shows how disproportionate the 42,000% rise in house prices is (Image: Archant)

The average UK house price in 1926, the year Queen Elizabeth II was born, was £619 according to the 90 year housing review by Jackson-Stops & Staff. Nine decades on and it’s £291,505, up 47,021 per cent or 471 times, based on data from the Office for National Statistics.

A house on Denning Road in Hampstead on the market today for £3.75million would have cost £7,196 according to these calculations.

James Morton of Benham & Reeves who are marketing the property suggests the 1920s price would have been even lower than that, showing just how far house prices in NW3 have risen.

Mr Morton said: “I think the price of that house would have been in the hundreds in the 1920s. £7,196 sounds like a lot, that’s the sort of money you would have spent on property in Hampstead in the 1960s.

“The main reason house prices have risen so much faster than anything else is due to the availability of mortgages. It means that anybody can borrow to buy a house, which has escalated prices.

“It’s enabled people to compete for property and the more demand there is, the higher prices go. Meanwhile, there’s a limited supply of houses, particularly in Hampstead where space is limited. There’s a far greater supply of cheese available!”

Nigel Steele of Jackson-Stops & Staff said: “It is not the fact that property has outperformed over the last 90 years that is surprising, but the sheer scale of it.

“The 471-fold increase would take a 65cm pot plant, which could easily fit under a kitchen table, to a giant tree that is taller than London’s Shard, standing at 306 metres.”

So what does the future hold? Most would agree that another 471 fold increase is unlikely. But if it happens, what will the average price of a house be?

Ham & High: If property prices continue to increase at the same rate, by the time Prince George is 90 in 2103 they will have hit �86.8millionIf property prices continue to increase at the same rate, by the time Prince George is 90 in 2103 they will have hit �86.8million (Image: Archant)